jlv
Well-known member
Frankly, I think the lack of a shifter is a bad idea. It'll be like the removal of the dedicated rain sensors, but with much worse results.
But I see how it can work.
The car already knows what all around it via the ultrasonic sensors and the cameras. When I bought my Model S, most of the cameras weren't active. Only via OTA has the car gained features and enabled their use. E.g., only with an update 3 months ago did AutoPilot start to stop at traffic lights and stop signs.
When you are in a parking spot, the car sees the lines all around. Thus, it will use this to decide to back up vs. go forward. They've already enabled this logic in the "Come to me" Summon Option that allows the car to autonomously leave a parking spot and drive across a parking lot to you.
They used the same sensors to prevent people from short-range SUA - the car will not go forward from a standstill if it detects an obstacle in front of it.
I can imagine the car will get the shifter selection right about 95% of the time. The other times you need to override it on the touch screen, and that will be annoying. And 5% annoying is too much.
For example, sometimes I need to move my car in the garage back 3 feet (so I can open the ladder and get into the loft in front of the car). This is one thing I use summon for; I just use my phone and tell the car to back up. But sometimes I'll have my fob, and it's still quicker to jump in the car and backup. I'm pretty sure the car will always guess correctly to go into reverse. But then an hour later when I want it to move the car back forward 3 feet, I'm sure every time it will decide I want to back all the way out of the garage. And so I'd have to tap the touchscreen. Not that big of a deal, but annoying.
(And I'm typing this thinking this is another post I'll create and then just delete, because here at MNL you are all too busy talking about dying 12V batteries, "can my car make this 30 mile commute", and other mundane things to actually have a useful discussion about Tesla).
But I see how it can work.
The car already knows what all around it via the ultrasonic sensors and the cameras. When I bought my Model S, most of the cameras weren't active. Only via OTA has the car gained features and enabled their use. E.g., only with an update 3 months ago did AutoPilot start to stop at traffic lights and stop signs.
When you are in a parking spot, the car sees the lines all around. Thus, it will use this to decide to back up vs. go forward. They've already enabled this logic in the "Come to me" Summon Option that allows the car to autonomously leave a parking spot and drive across a parking lot to you.
They used the same sensors to prevent people from short-range SUA - the car will not go forward from a standstill if it detects an obstacle in front of it.
I can imagine the car will get the shifter selection right about 95% of the time. The other times you need to override it on the touch screen, and that will be annoying. And 5% annoying is too much.
For example, sometimes I need to move my car in the garage back 3 feet (so I can open the ladder and get into the loft in front of the car). This is one thing I use summon for; I just use my phone and tell the car to back up. But sometimes I'll have my fob, and it's still quicker to jump in the car and backup. I'm pretty sure the car will always guess correctly to go into reverse. But then an hour later when I want it to move the car back forward 3 feet, I'm sure every time it will decide I want to back all the way out of the garage. And so I'd have to tap the touchscreen. Not that big of a deal, but annoying.
(And I'm typing this thinking this is another post I'll create and then just delete, because here at MNL you are all too busy talking about dying 12V batteries, "can my car make this 30 mile commute", and other mundane things to actually have a useful discussion about Tesla).